The Secret to Independent/Self-Publishing? - Series! (Part 2)

Last week I talked about my journey through independent publishing learning what was working and what was not.  I had started with writing non-fiction and one-off novels, and found that the promoting of them was very difficult, particularly because, once I had promoted them, I was done.  There was no series which I could build over time.

What I’ve done with this blog post, in splitting it up, is illustrate part of what works.  If you can generate some interest and say the story will continue, that draws an audience in.  It also helps because it’s spread over two areas.  Some of you will undoubtedly see this post first, and go back to the last one to see where I began while many of you will have seen that first, and come here.  This is called casting a wider net.  If I had another one come out next week, some people would undoubtedly see that and trace it back to see where it all began.  And when people make sure to read all the way through, that counts as three views to my blog per person rather than just one.

In short, having a series builds an audience over time, something independent authors desperately need.  The more reasons you have to post about your series, the more opportunities others have to find it.  And by having multiple books come out, you can have something new to talk about regarding your series as time goes along.  It’s especially helpful when you have short stories that take place throughout as well, as you can post and talk about those for free, and they’re tiny amounts of your story that people can digest without a huge investment of time.

In my case, I’ve chosen to do my series Relic Worlds, about an anthropologist searching for ancient artifacts in the ruins of distant planets to learn what happened to alien civilizations in the galaxy.  Sort of Indiana Jones in space, if you will.  This series has a novel once a year, and a bunch of short stories in between each novel.  There are also games, choose your own adventures, and other interactive materials that come out for it all the time.

By having so many different elements, I’m able to talk about what’s happening in the series on an ongoing basis.  This is a huge departure from my other books where the only update I could give was, “book’s still out on Amazon and waiting for you to buy.”  As an ongoing tale, I can keep everyone up to date on the latest products and stories in the ongoing adventure.  And I can bring everyone along for the ride like they’re involved.

I bring them along by being a part of their discussions on Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.  Being sci fi and adventure, those are the groups I belong to; and I enjoy the discussions.  I can get involved in what they’re saying about other sci fi and adventure stories, and I build trust and engagement with them.  So when I say, hey guys, something else has come out from Relic Worlds, I’m not just appearing out of nowhere and trying to sell them something.  Hell, I’m not even selling to them, I’m giving away most of what I’m talking about for free.

Speaking of which, it’s best to make the first book free as well.  This pulls people into the story as they’re likely to get the first book for free just to see what it is, then they’ll get curious where the characters go from there.  I made sure to end the first book by giving a sense of where everyone was going, but leaving it open-ended enough to make everyone curious.  With my one-off books, when I gave them away for free, that was it.  They had the product and didn’t need to buy anything else.

And then there’s the conventions.  While it was difficult for me to find conventions to sell my other books, with sci fi, there are plenty of conventions dedicated to just that, or to the “popular arts,” which generally includes sci fi and fantasy along with comic books.  Now, at these conventions you’ll generally spend a lot of money getting a booth and decorating it, but then you’ll hardly have any sales.  So why are they worth it?  Because that’s where you build your following.  They may not want to spend money at your booth because they’re spending it all on Batman and Star Wars paraphernalia.  But since they met you, they’ll go home and look at your stuff, and possibly buy it later.  They’re also pretty willing to join your mailing list.

This mailing list, I’ve learned, is perhaps the most important element.  By having it, I can contact them directly to remind them I exist rather than counting on people to look up my page and start following along.  Again, with a one-off book, all I can do is tell them what’s in the book and hope they buy it, or maybe tell them about new books I’m writing, which may or may not be of a genre they’re interested in.  But by having an ongoing sci fi series, they will stay connected, and follow the story that matches their interest.

So, the plan for Relic Worlds going forward is basically in two parts: online and at conventions.

Online I interact with others in their groups and on my pages, twitter, blog, etc.  I tell them what’s new in the world of Relic Worlds while interacting with them about other subjects in sci fi and adventure.  (Even throwing in a lot about real science and archaeology.)  This is all centered on the newsletter that I send out once a month to the people on the email list.

Meanwhile, I go to whatever conventions I can get to and afford, and I build my email list, as well as give out flyers to get people involved in the series.  So far it’s done well to generate some interest.  Few sales have come from it, but I’ve just started, so hopefully this will work.  I’ll post later about how it continues.

The Secret to Independent/Self-Publishing? - Series! (Part 1)

When I started doing independent publishing, I wrote nonfiction books and single, one-off novels.  While I’m proud of these works, and the non-fictions in particular have been met with rave reviews, I’ve learned that these are precisely the sorts of books that are the hardest sells for independent authors and publishers.  What works, in short, are series for niche markets.

You see, major publishers can sell one-off books more effectively because they have a larger marketing budget, and they’re well established in the industry.  They have connections and inroads into distribution channels that give them a virtual monopoly in certain venues.  This is especially prevalent in pre-sales where they are able to get reviewed by major publications that have large subscriber bases and loyal viewers, readers, and followers.  These connections would take individual publishers and authors years to build, if they can build them at all.  Additionally, traditional publishers have large teams of people dedicated only to publishing without the distraction of writing.

Independent authors are trying to get the attention of news reporters, bloggers, show hosts, etc. while continuing to write another book and often while doing a day job as well.  And when they finally break through those barriers and get some coverage, all that effort is rewarded once, and then it’s back to the drawing board for the next story.  Sometimes people who bought one of your books will remember you for the next one.  And Amazon has been great about telling people who buy one book that there’s another book by the same author.  But this all has limited success, especially when your books are not of the same subject.

However, social media gives the author complete control over their promotions.  No longer are you dependent upon news sources to see some value in your product.  You can post about your newest creations online.  The problem with this is two-fold.  First, people don’t like to be sold to while you are on social media.  So you can’t just go on and start saying you have a book to sell.  You have to become a part of the community; like and comment on things other people are posting.  After a while, you can bring up your own book, and if you did it right, you’ll get some sales.  But then that’s it.  You’ve done what you can for that book.  And now you belong to a group you only joined because you wanted to do that one thing.

In my case, I did have three non-fiction books that were all true crime related, so I was able to be a part of the true crime community and talk about each book as it came out.  But this was limited because I couldn’t post too much about each book without giving their content away.  And, to be honest, I’ve never had that big of an interest in the whole world of true crime.  I just happened to have three stories I’m fascinated by that happen to be defined as true crime.  My posts probably reflected the fact that I just wasn’t that interested in the general subject matter.

Also, the only conventions I could take these books to were general book conventions.  There are no true crime conventions, (at least I hope there aren’t,) so I was limited to what I could do online to try to generate interest in these books.

Fiction series for a niche market, however, that’s a different story; one I will get to in my upcoming post next week…